Performed by – David Hinsley, Ngwe Phyo, Nick Ward

Chronic pain is often caused by inflammation and calcification of tendons (tendonitis) and their attachments to bone (enthesiopathy). This can occur due to sports injuries, overuse and the natural effects of aging.

Examples of common conditions we can successfully treat include Tennis and Golfer’s elbow (epicondylitis), shoulder pain (due to calcific tendonitis), hip pain (due to trochanteric bursitis), knee pain (due to patellar tendonitis), Achilles tendon pain (tendonitis), heel pain (plantar fasciitis/Policemans heel).

Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) is performed by Orthopaedic Surgeons in outpatients. This avoids the need for painful injections, medication or surgery. It is effective for many musculoskeletal problems even if other therapies have proved ineffective.

Shock wave therapy is the application of high energy focused sound waves onto the injured area. The technology was first developed for breaking up kidney stones without surgery known as lithotripsy. It soon became apparent that this level of focused energy promotes new blood vessel formation and natural healing in inflamed tissue. In other words, the shock wave can stimulate the healing of tissue which has not healed spontaneously.

A course of treatment usually requires at least three sessions, each taking about 10-20 minutes. Partial pain relief is often felt immediately following treatment and permanent results can be expected 4 – 6 weeks following the last session.

The chronic problems that can be treated using this therapy are common in many types of sports including golf, tennis, cricket, squash, running, rugby, football, hockey and athletics. They are also common in water sports enthusiasts especially, windsurfers, kite surfers and water skiers. They can also be an occupational hazard in manual workers. Interestingly they also can also occur from minor repetitive trauma such as house work and using a computer mouse!

Success rates of approximately 80% have been found in most studies investigating its effect.